((Tada! Chapter 3. Fear me. I'm hoping that this one will bring more action since... most of the introductions are over. Thank God...

I could feel those intros draining my brain...Well let's see how well I do on this chapter.

And now the drama commences!))

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Chapter 3: First Training Mission and The Face of Evil

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"Will Miguel Delgato, Ren DuTour, Colette Mason, Craig McConnel, Amy Johnson, and Mordred Rowley - please arrive in the training room. I repeat, Miguel Delgato, Ren DuTour, Colette Mason, Craig McConnel, Amy Johnson, and Mordred Rowley to the training room. The Priestess would like to start your first training mission. Please report by 7:30 a.m. Thank you, and good morning." The voice on the PA system said in a delightful robotic little monotone...

Everyone had heard the announcement echo through the halls. This of course spurred obvious wondering of who these students were and why they were having a training mission on the second day. Somehow it was a bit confusing. But eventually all the teams would have training missions, but the special team would have more intense ones because of the level of their powers. It seemed sort of elitist to do something that way, but it had to be done as they were the ones with the most potential to be a danger to themselves and others in the long run.

The six confused teenagers had little idea what they were exactly supposed to be doing.

Good morning, children. In your rooms we have put your training suits. Please change into them and make your way to the left atrium of the Institute. Look for the double doors in the middle of the hallway. You can't miss it. Now hurry. The Priestess's voice echoed in their heads again. Surely, it gave everyone the creeps that she was mentally connected to their minds. A bit disconcerting actually.

---

So after changing into the odd training suits which were black and seemed reinforced by a durable material, and for some, it was custom made, as in for Miguel, the six made their way to the left atrium. It took the six of them to actually figure out what she meant by the left atrium and what door they were supposed to open. After about twenty minutes of searching they found a pair of ominous doors awaiting them.

The doors were a deep brown color and looked much larger than any of the other doors. And in the wood, there were carvings and intricate designs that bejeweled the wood.

Tentatively, they opened the door which made a loud and sickening creaking sound as it opened. Once it opened, they could see that the heavy doors were reinforced by a silvery metal and bolted to the wood. Looking at it, the metal seemed several inches thick...

The training room itself was enormous. It was an oval shaped room and very very large and wide. It was all the same color silver as the door and once the doors were closed behind them, it was hard to tell the doors apart from the rest of the walls. Amy crossed her arms nervously as she glanced around at the same boring color. It was shaped in such a way that it was difficult to tell how big the place really was because it seemed to be a bubble.

Ren needed to squint across the way to see a large control box and in the back by the control box were the figures of the Priestess, Orion, Robin, and the two assistants Dreamscape and Golem, who were actually in the box.

The six of them after pausing to look over the place realized they were keeping the Priestess waiting and walked together, solemnly in... a very nervous herd of sorts.

It took a few minutes for them to make it across the room at their current pace and stopped in front of the Priestess who looked not at all pleased. Orion stood to her left but a bit behind, and Robin stood at the entrance of the control room, while Dreamscape and Golem looked on from the control room's windows, both with faces of snickering.

"You're late. I told you to be here by 7:30 a.m. It's now 7:49 a.m. ...In the future, do not be late." The Priestess was not in a joking mood and it seemed like a real turnaround from her earlier attitude of not caring. "Now. Once in a while, besides your usual training missions, there will be a few special ones to prepare you for real missions you may face later on. The regular training missions will teach you to control your powers better.. but the special ones will prepare you for scenarios that you may encounter from various mutants who side with evil."

Orion paused for a moment. He had wanted to ask her why she felt the need to start training missions of this kind so soon... and now he remembered. Orion turned away for a moment. It was because he mentioned Marcelina. Priestess was afraid that Marcelina and her recruiter might attack before they made any significant progress.

"So... what do we do?" Mordred asked the Priestess a bit boldly.

"Well. I was going to give you the beginner sequence... but maybe a more advanced level will show you what happens when you're late. Robin, Ethan (Dreamscape), Emma (Golem) run program... Sigma Alpha Iota version two at level six please." The Priestess said looking to the three technical minds before beginning to walk towards the control room. Robin immediately opened the door and began to type something as the twins also did their part.

Orion followed after the Priestess and once the Priestess and himself had closed the door to the training room, it seemed to melt away into obscurity.

Soon the very room began to change shapes... it was one big illusionary place. The six of them looked as the room seemed to warp itself.

The once flat room began to take shape. The silvery cieling changed into a scenic sunset, the smooth floors began to be altered, as high walls rose in seemingly random locations. And from the walls, turrets emerged and began charging up to fire upon them.

"Your goal is to make it to the end of the Labyrinth in one piece. There are many pathways and you can either go as a group or by yourself. If you are defeated... well don't be defeated and you won't need to find out... Begin!" The Priestess spoke through a loud-speaker much like the PA system... and finally the scene was set... and a huge maze awaited their venturing.

"...So now what do we do?" Amy said quietly and a bit afraid.

"It's not a good idea to split up. If we get separated then we'll be defeated easier." Colette said nodding to herself.

"Right... let me go see which way we need to go." Ren said before beginning to float upwards. Soon he had made it nearly to the cieling and began to survey the maze. All at once the laser turrets locked onto Ren's position and opened fire. Ren blinked and dodged a few of them but was hit in the shoulder by one before he was forced to descend again. Once he had landed, they could see that the shot had very much hurt but the suit was reinforced enough to keep anything from being hurt.

"When flyers ascend in the middle of a battlefield, they become a target. Suppose the military was involved, identifying yourself as a mutant means the same as wearing a bullseye. Minus two." The Priestess' cynical voice rang out as the turrets stopped firing.

"...I think she's insane..." Colette said as Amy began to bring her hand up to her face.

"We'd better hurry and start... Either way, this isn't a game..." Miguel said as they started to move.

The group of six hurried through the maze, reaching dead end after dead end. It was obvious that they were lost again...

"Oh this is nuts. I'll just make a path for us." Mordred said taking off his glove. He pressed it against one of the walls and it began to dissolve. The six moved through hole after hole until a large robotic hand swiped from the hole and knocked Miguel into Colette. The creature was a large robot seeming to be several feet tall and had a lot of brute strength especially in its arms.

"Though some obstacles require getting through them if you can't find your way around them, it's best to do this only when you need to or you create a trail and sometimes what lies beyond a wall is worse than you might imagine. Minus three."

"Ow, ow, ow..." Colette said getting up from underneath of Miguel. The robot inched closer and rose its fist in a pounding motion. Craig on instinct create a barrier around himself and when the robot swung the mighty hammer-fist down, it impacted on the barrier. The robot's hand began to crack and various gears popped out until the arm basically broke. It turned its other hand towards Ren who as able to jump on the hand and then onto its back, resulting in a bucking bronco sort of thing.

"I can't... hold on... much longer... getting dizzy..." Ren said being swung back and forth before an electrical charge was sent through the robot. Its hand reached back and grabbed Ren before tossing him at a wall. Amy gasped and stopped Ren, mid throw and lowered him down. Miguel, in a quick action was able to use his tail to snatch the robot's leg out from under him, causing the monstrosity to make a creaking sound before crashing to the ground. It quickly went to rise again before Miguel slashed the robot's head off with his claws. A brief sigh of relief was in order for everyone involved. Somehow... this just wasn't fun anymore.

"Giving up already? Minus one."

"It's called taking a breath! Geez... insane old woman..." Mordred said to the cieling in an annoyed sort of way.

"Let's go. And no more shortcuts... for all our sakes..." Ren said trying to catch his breath.

"This way. I found a larger area. I think we're going the right way." Colette said as she made her way off to the right. There was a large area of vacant space and they all gave a slight sigh of relief before they started walking. Without much warning, one of the pannels of the walls opened and a large machine-gun type turret began firing a barrage of lasers at them.

"Ah!" Colette gasped before extending her hands and freezing the laser shots and the gattling gun in mid-fire. "Hurry!" Colette said as they all moved out of the way of the turret.

Time soon unfroze and the turret turned slowly and began to charge again.

"Beware flat areas. There's no cover and it's easy to be ambushed. Minus two." Another deduction... how many points had they lost so far? ...And how many points did they have left.

"I can't freeze it now or it'll follow us and then shoot when I unfreeze it..." Colette said a bit nervously. So far there was no door in sight.

"I'll try..." Amy said before placing her hands to her head. Soon the turret began to shake and the nozzel used to fire slowly began to bend back and curled. And as the gun was ready to shoot, the blast backfired and the turret exploded. Suddenly the turret was fired at them instead of ordinary bullets as it had been propelled by the blast.

After a brief group gasp and cover, the turret collided with something and bounced back bumping on the ground before finally settling on its side, still smoking. It had been Craig who raised a shield and reflected the metal projectile back.

"...She's trying to kill us." Amy said a bit exhausted mentally. Somehow.. this whole thing was just no fun anymore.

"We... must be near the exit now... the doors are... over there..." Miguel said trying to recover from the brief panic attack.

"But... how do we get through? It's a dead end...?" Ren asked before a part of the wall folded back. Soon there was a doorway in sight and everyone moved toward it.

"Wait. Wait, wait, wait..." Miguel said catching their attention. "So far, we've been shot at in the air, attacked by a robot, and now a gigantic turret just tried to fry us and then crush us... Colette could you please freeze whatever is in this maze right beyond that door. I don't trust this place anymore..." Miguel said quietly.

"...Umm... I guess it's... worth a try." Colette tucked a strand of her golden blonde hair behind her ear before extending her hands again. In a breif moment everything had stopped in the little arena of torture. The smoke from the turret that had exploded had stopped wafting and Colette nodded as they all walked forward towards the door.

After they reached the door, they saw something quite... evil... an army of those robotic giants. Not one, not two, not even ten... there must've been twenty.

"Good. You're looking for things that seem out of the ordinary. Plus five." They walked in between the metal mass.

"Should we destroy them now?" Amy said before Mordred pulled off his glove.

"...Our attacks won't take effect on them until Colette's time freeze wears off... and if it took all those hits before... it's best that we not see how many hits it'll take against twenty..." Ren said not wanting to fight. He just wanted to get out of the maze... and take a deep breath. Already the adrenaline was pumping a bit too much and his knees felt a bit shaky.

Amy nodded and motioned for Mordred to come along. Soon they were in another compartment of the maze and right ahead was the exit. Colette's focus broke and she let time resume taking a deep and tired sort of breath. "Oh let's get out of here..." She said making a trudge for the exit.

But as they were about to exit, the walls began to warp again. But this time they rose up around the six themselves.

---

The walls around Ren closed in and the floor moved up for him and he had to take to flying again. Soon the cieling above the maze closed in making Ren the only one to stand out as a bunch of turrets began to lock on to him. With nowhere to go but fly around, and no cover to take in the actual maze now that it was sealed up, Ren was all alone.

The laser turrets began to follow his movements and opened fire...

---

Mordred's walls closed in around him to make a box. And... slowly... they began to squeeze in around him. He took off his glove and began to disintegrate one of the walls. As he made it out of that one, there were more walls intent on closing in and squishing him completely.

For some reason, the more walls he melted through, the more began to appear only thicker...

---

Miguel and Craig were trapped with an army of giant robots like the ones from before. Apparently the army that they refused to vanquish followed after them. Miguel was soon separated from Craig in a sea of robots.

Miguel had to do battle with them, and Craig could only defend against them...

---

Amy and Colette had grabbed each other's hands so they wouldn't be separated, but had to part as a huge batallion of the same large clunky turrets shot at them. Amy was trapped on one side, and Colette on the other.

Meanwhile the turrents continued to strafe after them...

---

Ren was quickly getting irritated by the flying shots at him. It took constant movement not to get hit.

"Enough!" He said stopping before emitting a large blast of electrictity in all directions as lightning bolts. The turrets sparked and sputtered but electricity did little to stop them. They sparked and smoke came off of them... and for a moment it seemed like the tiny laser turrets had turned themselves off.

But as soon as that happened and Ren began to take quick shallowed breaths, one by one the turrets began to become active again. Ren blinked and rose before being cornered by the actual cieling of the room... He ducked and weaved and threw balls of electric energy at the turrets but each time he did, they seemed to amplify their power. He stood now at the bottom and standing on the floor... which was actually the cieling for the maze but he could no longer get inside. Finally, before he could emit more bolts of lighting, he was struck in the back by a laser blast that shot him forward.

He was then barraged by a volley of laser shots, and though he was protected they still began to sting worse and worse until Ren could feel himself beginning to lose consciousness...

---

Mordred was beginning to see which walls were thicker than others and instead ran his hand along the walls as he ran and as they dissolved, more walls came to meet him.

Soon he was like a rabbit running here and there and everywhere. He began to feel tired and out of breath, though he urged himself on.

This way, and that way, and he didn't know where he was but he couldn't keep doing this for long. And soon, his legs began to tremble and he clumsily fell over his own feet. And now, with his gloved hand, he began to push his way back true fear in his eyes with his one gloved hand... and because he'd now backed himself in a corner and the walls threatened to crush him.

All he could do was put his arm in front of him to distance himself from the walls...

---

Miguel and Craig fought valiantly against the army of robots.

Miguel sliced through heads and crushed legs with his tail but soon he was getting mobbed by them.

Craig could only keep his shield up for every hit and watch as the damage recoiled. But even then it wasn't enough. Because with each hit he was trying to conserve energy. His energy was starting to rapidly deplete.

As Miguel began to make a charge against the robots he felt something pull him from the ground. One of the robots had grabbed his tail and began to pull him back. Miguel dug his claws into the floor but could get no real traction so he was hoisted into the air. And in a brief instant, he was tossed at Craig. Craig who had been rapidly losing power blinked seeing Miguel fly straight for him. At the time, Craig could not lower the shield because of the attack by his own robot foes. So... Miguel smacked right into Craig's shield and deflected off, launching him into the air and then down onto the ground. Craig immediately dropped the shield to see if Miguel was hurt. But... a robot hand reached up grabbed him around the waist and began to squeeze. In the quick motion, Craig's glasses had fallen off causing him to shut his eyes.

Craig could not draw a breath or put up a new shield like that and slowly felt the world begin to turn fuzzy as Miguel layed motionless with a crowd of robots around him...

---

Colette was freezing the laser barrages to get out of the way of them and they would miss and then they would fire again. This was something she could not keep up with and was steadily growing weaker.

Amy had resumed her earlier strategy of disabling the turrets but as she did in much the same way, they exploded and created random rockets that usually went in her direction. Amy shrieked each time and made random dives to avoid flying heaps of burning metal.

Colette was beginning to tire and saw Amy on the ground, who had accidentally knocked the wind out of herself as she landed. Colette was now being aimed at by two turrets. Her eyes grew wide as she braced for it. Amy saw one of the turrets vaguely as things were beginning to go blurry. Her legs would not respond to her and out of instinct, she disabled one more turret by bending the blasting device backwards causing an explosion and another soaring rocket.

Colette however had one more turret to deal with and as the laser barrage was sent at her by the laser arbalests, she rose her hands to freeze them but felt her energy all but tapped out.

She crossed her arms over her face and waited for the shots to blast her...

Amy however was unable to move, as the massive debris of the turret flew right at her...

---

And then... all was normal again. Ren and Craig dropped to the ground. Miguel was lying on the ground a bit out of it. Mordred was seen cowering at nothing. Colette held her hands in front of her face expecting to be shot at, and Amy had closed her eyes to prepare for the impact. But nothing happened...

The illusion quickly faded and returned to the same normal room. The walls of the labyrinth disappeared and the turrets all vanished into the walls again. Almost at once, the door of the control room opened after the program was terminated. Robin was first (naturally) to zoom out and check on Miguel who had just woken up and was still very groggy.

Orion quickly made his way over to Ren who was a bit wobbily when he stood but Orion helped to steady him. "You shouldn't try to move so soon. Those were some powerful shots..."

Dreamscape rushed over to Amy to help her up and she looked at him, slowly beginning to understand what had happened. Amy stood up slowly as her legs finally responded but they nearly gave out on her and Dreamscape caught her. "Careful, Amy. You're alright..." He said urging her to sit down until she regained her full consciousness of what was happened.

Golem made her way over to Craig who had dropped and began a wild coughing fit taking deep audible breaths finally getting the oxygen he needed. Golem began to pat his back and rub it in a comforting way. "There, there... just try to breathe normally. Priestess, ma'am... that was... a bit too much for their first time..."

Once Robin had seen to Miguel who was the least worse for wear because he'd been out of it all that time, she zoomed over to Colette who was frozen in place in her defensive position. She slowly lowered her arms and Robin smiled. "Wow. I'm impressed. You guys did better than anyone has on their first time. You almost made it to the exit on level 6!" She said a bit too happily.

Colette turned to her a bit in shock. "This... this... was... just a test?"

Orion and Robin looked back to the Priestess a bit unsure of what to do. It was meant to be a test but like always, the Priestess may had gone too far. She, however, was checking on Mordred who seemed mildly angry about the whole thing.

"What... the hell is wrong with you?!" Mordred said angrily standing up at once and reached for the Priestess with his ungloved hand. Orion and Robin both rushed forward to stop him but he was frozen in place by the Priestess' telekinesis. The hand that had been raised against her was reluctantly lowered, much to the anger of Mordred and he was pushed backwards onto his back.

"We had no intention of killing you. Relax. And watch your language with me, young man." The Priestess said sternly.

Amy quietly stood and smiled weakly to Dreamscape who had helped her by acting as a crutch until she could walk by herself. "Come on Mordred... relax." Amy said extending her hand to help him up. Mordred angrily rejected her hand and stood up by himself, causing Amy to frown a bit and resume her place by Colette to make sure she was alright.

Ren took a few deep breaths and went to see if Craig was alright, seeing as he seemed to had suffered the worst from his coughing fit. He spotted Craig and walked over to him. Craig was on his hands and knees, no longer coughing wildly, though there was an ocassional cough, but mainly he was running his hands over the cold floor with his eyes clenched shut. "Where... where are they...?" He was muttering to himself hopelessly.

Ren blinked and spotted Craig's glasses a little ways over. Ren walked over to them and retrieved them before putting them in front of Craig. "Here. Are these your glasses?" After some blind fumbling with Craig's hand to find Ren's, he did and took his glasses and put them on before returning to his feet, as did Ren.

"Thanks..." He said weakly to Ren before coughing again. "What... was the point of nearly killing us?" He asked in the Priestess' direction.

"Well. Sometimes you will be assigned to specific missions to preserve the peace... and this peace will be interrupted ocassionally by some mutants or humans who want to take the world for themselves. So this... was necessary. Though I had hoped you'd make it to the end once it was within your grasp. I guess we'll need to lower the level down to three or four instead of six... You're not quite ready for that..." She said a bit coldly.

Orion went to follow her. "Priestess... they did their best. Shouldn't you congratulate them for that at least?" He said in a whisper though it carried somewhat... at least to the ears of Robin, Golem, and Dreamscape.

"Even if it was their best, there is no reason to reward them for failure. A failure is a failure... no matter how much effort is put into it." She said quietly to him which made Orion frown as did Robin. "Robin... I want you to power down the training computer for now. Dreamscape, Golem, once you are down helping the children recover, I want you to process the statistics of their training simulation." The Priestess said quietly.

"As for you all, go get some rest. I'll need to see you again later but I'll give you word on that... when it comes." She said quietly beckoning Orion to follow, which he did. This of course left the children there to recover and grumble and take deep breaths of relief...

---

"You're too hard on them, Kiera. Level six... for their first time? What were you thinking...?" Orion asked in the Priestess' direction. The two had now made it into the courtyard.

The courtyard was rather lovely in the mornings. Beautiful old trees were stationed around a large fenced area with a lovely three-layered fountain in the middle. The figure of a woman was the statue on the fountain... she looked a bit like the basic idea of Aquarius in how the woman was holding a water jug over her shoulder and the water poured from her stone jar and emptied into the fountain. The flowers and hedges were stationed in a random order, and it was somehow hard to imagine that perhaps there was a defensive system built into the courtyard just in case. The gardens were managed by Demeter of course and she had all the plants looking perky nearly every day of the year.

"I was thinking that maybe they should be pushed a little harder because their abilities are more remarkable than average. If it were level five they would've completed the maze. But on level six, they almost made it. We have to keep pushing them... or they'll never improve. You realize that this won't be able to stop him without the strength of those children..." The Priestess said sitting on the edge of the fountain. In her hand she held a small formula that was currently under development... it was a temporary nullification formula that was still under testing but was able to temporarily depower a mutant.

"Of course we need to push them but... one you literally backed into a corner, one nearly plummets, one nearly gets crushed, one nearly gets mauled by an army of robots, and two nearly get mentally scarred. But it's not that part that bothers me... it's the part where you seem to disregard their safety and when they call you on it, you just say things like 'it must be done.' Kiera if you push them that hard they're going to break down." Orion said a teeny bit annoyed that the Priestess acted as if she could endanger her own students like that.

"Do you have a problem with a way I conduct things, Raphael?" She asked looking at him with a sharp look.

"Only when you end up hurting them, not helping them. And you won't even admit that part of the reason you put it on level six was because they were late..." He said crossing his arms.

"My reasons and methods are none of your business... Stick to doing your job and leave matters like this to me." She said coldly.

"None of my business?! My job is their safety. And if you keep putting them in positions to be killed..." He said tightening his hand into a fist. "Forget it, you're just too short-sighted to see how much damage you really caused today." Orion said before turning his back on her and walking away.

Demeter and Horatio had been... pretty much eavesdropping the whole time and the two of them would make faces when the Priestess or Orion would say things to each other, which must've stung them deeply. ...Those faces were the typical faces of an eavesdropper... the faces where they could see the train wreck coming but couldn't stop it.. and somehow the two of them had a knack for saying the wrong things to each other.

"You can come out now Viola... Horatio... I am psychic, you know..." The Priestess said standing up and brushing off her black dress.

"Oh... so you knew." Viola began stepping forward and adjusted her braid. "...I hate to say it but... from what I heard from Robin and the others... I think you may have gone a bit too far. I know they're powerful but... they are just children. And it was their first time. What made you think they could handle that? ...That and you said some things to Orion that were a bit.. uncalled for... You know Orion's one of your biggest supporters right?" Demeter asked approaching quietly.

"...Are you also questioning my logic? ...And what about you Horatio? Anything else I'm doing wrong?" The Priestess said a bit condescendingly. To the Priestess, it felt like she was the only one at fault and she could not get any support.

"Look, Kiera... It's great you feel the need to push them but when someone nearly dies in a training mission.. that's not something that you can say was necessary. Why don't you just apologize to Orion... It's just going to be awkward if you don't." Horatio said shaking his head and beginning to walk away. "Hey, Vi, I'm gonna see how August and Phoebe are adjusting. I'll see you a bit later." He said giving a slight wave.

"So you two really think I'm wrong?" Kiera asked now in a less... snippy tone. In her defense, the Priestess honestly believed that pressing people to do their best was the right thing to do. Truthfully, she believed that getting in that type of a situation would teach the kids not to get in it again. Demeter seemed to be waiting for the Priestess to go off and apologize to Orion. "...Fine. I'll go find him..." She said getting a bit irritated to be getting looked at so intently.

---

"...No. They haven't suspected anything."

Good. The mental shield worked... Are the explosives set up? ...We need to get this plan underway. Understood?

"Everything's in place. I just need them to get into the right position. Just have Marcelina ready. ...And you're the one making the appearance?"

She's already waiting. She'll be ready when the time comes. ...And yes. I think it's time for a reunion with my old friend Kiera. Just don't blow your cover...

"I won't. I'll set off the explosives... very soon. Get ready for your debut, Sir."

---

The Priestess was able to follow Orion by his thoughts and soon found him walking through the vacant building of the garage. The Priestess found that a bit odd because Orion was not normally interested in cars...

The garage was a large building located on the property that were managed by Gadget... another mutant with control over metals and also a powerful technopath with a whole bunch of degrees in physics and mechanics and other things of that nature. Though Gadget was usually very secretive and mostly involved in helping Robin with the machines in actually building them, for the most part he kept to himself. The garage housed a large variety of custom made cars made with a lot of effort and mostly out of scrap metal that Gadget collected. The garage housed cars and ships that were made to get to different places when and if they had a mission. Recently though, Gadget had been secretly working in his laboratory (underneath the school) making a kind of airship for them to use if they needed it.

Orion leaned quietly against a car's bumper staring off into space... looking as if he were waiting for someone.

The Priestess quietly walked up to him and took a deep breath.

Orion blinked for a moment. "Why are you so late? Your message said you would've been here ten minutes ago..." He said not really looking at her.

"...Ten minutes ago? I sent no message to you. The only reason I found you is because I followed your thoughts..."

Before Orion could ask what she was talking about - because he apparently wasn't understanding someone had faked the Priestess's telepathic message to get Orion into the garage - a sudden tremor struck the ground that rattled the cars. Soon the rumbling stopped... but then another one... and another and then finally the explosions seemed to be getting closer until Orion and the Priestess noticed there were bombs attached to the main columns of the garage that supported the roof.

"Get down!" Orion said pushing the Priestess onto the ground before taking cover himself as the explosions went off. The main support beams made a horrible creaking sound but the garage had yet to fall in upon itself. The main support had been sturdier than the bomb-setter had suspected apparently and the roof, though shaky, was still standing. On the way down, Orion had scraped his cheek on the asphalt and the Priestess was just a little sore from being pushed to the ground.

Soon the alarm system began to go off. ...In these cases the teachers available were to make sure to round up the kids (with the exception of the special group, who were to be informed on where the disturbance was and to get there because it was their responsibility..)

Staff, this is Ms. Delaurie. There has been a series of explosions in the garage and near that general area. Orion and myself are already at the scene. Your primary duty is to secure and guard the children.

Special group, please report to the garage. It is an absolute emergency, and vital you get here as soon as possible...

The Priestess was able to send out two mental messages before she stood up seeing the main support looking like it might collapse at any second. "Orion we should evacuate..."

Orion nodded but before they could, a figure emerged from the shadows of the garage laughing a bit at the predicament. Orion nearly froze at the sight of the intruder while the Priestess narrowed her eyes.

"Why Kiera, Raphael... there you are. We weren't expecting that you would also be here Kiera... I'm sure it's just a coincidence... you never could see the big picture." The man said taking his arms and placing them straight in front of him before moving them apart. As he did this, the cars in the garage all moved towards the side in a messy fashion resulting in collisions. That was mainly to make a space for the ensuing battle. "So Raphael, how've you been? It's been so long since I've seen you... back then you were still learning English... and Kiera... well... we've faced each other before this but... not under these circumstances. And here I thought I'd just get to talk to Raphael. ..A man to man talk... but there will be time for that later... once you come with us, Orion." The man said with a slight smile that was dark and cold.

"I'm not going with you, Nature. I stopped following you when you broke away from the group..." Orion said narrowing his eyes.

"What are you planning Elias? And why is Raphael so important to you now...?" The Priestess asked preparing for a mental attack.

"Aww, Orion... are you still holding that grudge? We never were a close-knit group anyway." He said shaking his head as he approached. "Why is Orion important...? Well that would be telling... and I hate spoiling the surprise..." Nature said with an air of mystery.

Nature, or Elias Rockwell, was the main person of evil and opposition to the Priestess. Elias was born centuries ago and lived by stealing the powers of mutants and others that he wanted. All he had to do was kill them first. Nature had changed his name many times and his main power was taking others' powers after killing them. Of course, Nature began hunting down mutants that met certain criteria, and before long was able to absorb the powers of multiple mutants, in particular the ones with control over various elements of nature. He had even tried to steal Demeter's powers but was stopped by the Priestess and Horatio before he could kill her.

But long before Nature was identified as a villain, he was apart of the same group that the Priestess and Orion and many of the other teachers were when they had to save Earth from the alien invaders. Nature and the Priestess constantly conflicted because Nature wanted to be their leader and was for a while, until his brutality and cruelty showed through and the Priestess urged the others to stop him. Through their combined efforts, they forced him out and Nature had always resented her. ...In particular, Nature had wanted to steal the powers of the ones who had helped the Priestess before actually taking her out. ...Though, this time, his plans for Orion seemed somewhat different.

The Priestess launched a psionic blast that Nature quickly was able to absorb. Because Nature had absorbed a vast variety of powers, others with powers similar to his own, were not really able to hurt him. When a mutant with a power that Nature had already absorbed before in his lifetime attacked with their powers... Nature was able to take the hit and convert it into his own energy. Though, the Priestess had certain abilities, like telekinesis, he had yet to acquire.

"Enough of this foolishness Kiera... leave the boys to talk to each other won't you?" He said looking to Orion before Orion began to float under the influence of the wind by Nature. "Conscious or not... I'm taking Orion with me..." He said sending Orion flying into one of the cars by his back. Orion was very stoic though and although he was in pain, he hid it well, despite the fact he was starting to bleed. "Come on Orion... won't you scream for me?" Nature said with a mock pout before sending Orion tumbling onto the ground.

Before Nature could unleash another attack, a large vine shot up and grabbed his hand, twisting it and then shooting him back a ways.

"Why, hello, Demeter. It's nice to see you too." Nature said standing up and brushing himself off. With Demeter, there were many of the teachers, as well as Ren, Mordred, Amy, Colette, Craig, and Miguel. "Oh look at the new special group... I wonder how powerful they are..."

Orion was currently off to the side being helped up by Magi and Robin while at Demeter's side was Horatio.

---

Nature began to float and laugh a bit. "Fight as much as you want... Orion will come with me... one way, or the other..." He said snickering a bit.

The Priestess looked back to Demeter. "Where's Crest?" Demeter gave a slight shrug at Crest's absence. In truth, Crest was back protecting the children just in case.

Robin was the first to begin a charge and was able to zoom along jumping on the mass of cars and because of her high speed, she even was able to run along the walls. She made a leap for the floating Nature but he simply laughed before ascending out of her reach. Nature then concentrated for a moment and shot a blast of ice onto the ground, that Robin, inevitably landed on causing her to lose all friction and do a mad slide that ended up making her tumble at a high speed until she stopped after colliding with Magi, who was actually trying to avoid something like that happening.

"Two down... who's next?" Nature asked before another group of vines ensnared him, thanks to Demeter. "Ah, Viola..." Nature said before engulfing his body in flames, causing the vines to wither and turn to ash, before returning to normal. He at once seized Demeter by the throat and pick her up.

"Viola!" Horatio concentrated on the jingling of the bells on his clothes before a massive looking wave of sound energy came for Nature. The blast was enough to tear up the stone flooring of the garage as it went. Nature soon took notice of the blast of energy and evaded it, but not before putting Viola in the way of it. Somehow, Nature took a perverse pleasure in watching the others accidentally hurt their own teammates. Demeter was sent flying backwards and through the wall of the garage and into the courtyard by the sound blast. Horatio stood there frozen by horror that he had hurt his wife accidentally, and out of instinct, went to go see if she was alright.

Horatio was stopped by Nature who made a tsk tsk motion with his finger. Horatio growled and made blind rage-filled swipes at Nature who was able to avoid them with ease. Soon Horatio made a few more blind punches before sending another blast of sound at him. Nature leapt over it, sending a quick punch to Horatio's gut before seizing him by the throat as well. "If you love her so much, then go join her..." Nature said before balling his hand into a fist and engulfing it in flames. With one quick punch he sent Horatio out into the courtyard as well.

---

Miguel was next to launch an assault on Nature by swooping at him and actually making a deep looking slash across Nature's back with his claws ripping a few claw-shaped tears in Nature's shirt and jacekt. Nature made an audible groan but turned around looking normal. "So you're the first to actually land a hit. Kudos... and you must be Quetzal... so nice to meet you but..." Nature placed his hands close to Miguel's face before sending a blinding flast of light from them making Miguel stumble back blindly.

"Don't worry. It's temporary... as is your slight 'victory'.." He said before sending Miguel flying backwards.

Nature then rose into the air again and suddenly everything turned dark. "Let's see how well you can see in the dark..." All there really was to illuminate the area was the gaping hole in the garage caused by Horatio's... accident that sent Viola through it.

Amy was able to sense the feelings of spite and the sadistic cruelty through the air because of her empathic powers. Without a lot of warning or hesitation, she picked up one of the cars with her mind and sent it in the direction of the negative feelings. A loud clunk was heard and the light suddenly returned. The car had apparently hits it mark but missed any major damage.

Nature was... actually fuming and glared harshly in Amy's direction. "So you want to throw things huh? How about this then?" Nature made some of the various cars begin to rise and sent them flying through the air at Amy. Amy seemed to pale rather quickly and deflected one or two with her mind but the rest she couldn't reach in time. It was then that Craig had jumped in front of her and put up the shield and the cars collided with it seeming to take quite a toll on Craig, before they bounced off.

As the cars fell harmlessly to the side, Craig let the shield drop and began to breathe heavily. Apparently the heavier the object, the harder it was to reflect them. Craig fell to one knee and Amy blinked rushing to his side.

Nature scoffed looking back to the Priestess. "This is the best you can do with these students? ...Truly pathetic." Nature was subsequently struck with a powerful bolt of lightning by Ren but Nature actually erupted in laughter as the lightning seemed to not do very much... if anything at all. But in actuality, the slash on his back started to close up until it finally healed completely. "Thanks, kid... Now let me show you what a lightning strick is supposed to be like..." He said before shooting a massive bolt of lightning for Ren.

Ren put his hands in front of him and the bolt of lightning looked like it was struggling to get free. This was because, while Nature could only generate electricty, Ren was electrokinetic and so as well as generating it, he could control its path with his mind. Ren began to slowly lose ground with the lightning strike and in the end, just ended up redirecting the lightning bolt upwards, which blasted a hole through the shaky cieling, causing more rumbling and a few random pieces of rock to fall that came from the cieling.

Colette, who hadn't been able to do much because she knew her freezing powers would do no good against someone of Nature's level, sat back with Orion and Mordred trying to make sure that Orion was alright. She glanced up at the falling rocks and saw that Ren was right under one that was about to fall. "Freeze..." She said quietly freezing the collapsing rocks but the stone that had made up the once flawless cieling were very heavy... Ren immediately looked up and darted out of the way making his way towards Craig and Amy.

Mordred took this opportunity to make a quiet stealthy dash towards Nature who had landed finally. Mordred at once took his gloves off and made a grab for Nature's face. He turned around a bit too late as Mordred's caustic skin touched Nature's cheek causing a slight hissing sound but it missed anything vital. Nature at once grabbed Mordred's covered arm instead and flung him against the main support beam. The whole structure seemed to wobble on the impact and the Priestess stood by hoping it wouldn't collapse.

Nature's old smirk appeared before he sent a tremor through the ground. It smacked right into the main support beam and finally the once sturdy beam snapped making the cieling slowly begin to crack.. The long crack in the cieling began to branch out into other cracks and as they did, dust and small pieces of rock began to fall... The whole structure creaked for a moment before the network of cracks began to finalize... and one by one, little pieces of the cieling began to crumble.

Orion's eyes widened as the building seemed to be collapsing. He stood up, making his way towards the middle of the room and placed both hands skyward, palms flat. Orion's eyes began to glow a royal purple before the cieling stopped rumbling. The pieces of rock, though destined to fall, were being supported as Orion altered their gravity fields enough to make them float. Orion showed that he was under obvious strain though. "Kiera. Get them out of here... before the place collapses."

The Priestess nodded and Nature was seen laughing a bit at the effort. The Priestess looked in her pocket to find the small container of nullifying liquid that she had earlier. She threw the small container at Nature and it impacted, breaking on his back and leaking out on him.

"What was that supposed to be Kiera? ...Oh well... Guess I'll just have to..." He trailed off with his hand extended. The lightning blast he had planned for her fizzled out and his eyes widened a bit. The Priestess showed a triumphant smirk before launching a psychic assault. The blasts sent Nature backwards and forwards before... Nature slipped his hands into his pockets. He pulled out a pair of pistols... For some reason he seemed very prepared...

Blindly, Nature fired the gun in any sort of direction. Though a bullet grazed her cheek, the Priestess was fine. The only shot that did any real damage was quickly noticed. Orion had been struck in his left arm causing the gravity fields over the floating stones to become a bit unstable. Orion dropped his left arm wanting desperately to clutch his arm, like the situation would call for, but he kept his arm extended to keep up the stones, though they had dropped a bit and a few of the bigger ones began to crash into the ground. Orion's powers faltered when he lost concentration and in the case of being in pain, it was making him lose his concentration...

Nature, however, seemed to disappear as suddenly as he appeared and no one had seen his departure...

"Everyone. Outside now..." The Priestess said as everyone began to exit. Those who were unconscious were picked up and brought outside by the hole. Orion sat there holding up the cieling before Kiera made her way over to him.

"We have to go, Orion..." She said pleading with him.

"Go, Kiera. If I move, the cieling will collapse in an instant." He said now on one knee trying to keep the cieling up. Somehow, he felt a bit like Atlas rather than Orion...

"...Raphael I can't leave you here to die..." She said a bit shocked he would even suggest it.

"I'm not going to die... Just hurry and get me out of the rubble. You're so melodramatic..." He said shaking his head.

"Bu--" The Priestess had attempted to plead further but Orion rose his pained left arm and shot her back with a blast of energy out of the collapsing building and into the courtyard. And with that Orion let down the gravity field, though he intended to move the falling rocks from collapsing on himself...

---

Seemingly all at once, the garage seemed to implode and the sound of crunching metal and falling rock seemed to echo.

Viola and Horatio slowly regained consciousness, Horatio with various scorch marks, and Viola with a gash on her arm and blood running down the side of her head.

Miguel also woke up a bit dazed...

Magi woke up with a headache and Robin with a scrape up her thigh from tumbling on the asphalt.

Priestess looked to Amy and anyone else who could quickly sift through rocks to find Orion. The Priestess trusted that Orion was not dead, but if left under the rubble too long... then he would be dead. Soon psychically lifted rocks began flying into a pile. Viola assisted by using vines to drag the rocks away and Mordred by dissolving through some of the stone.

The Priestess, getting rather angry at the laborious task urged everyone to get back and summoning her most powerful psychic blast she rose every piece of rubble in the air... but the Priestess soon dropped them. Her eyes were wide with disbelief and she dropped to her knees in a state of confusion and fear...

For, when she lifted all the pieces of rubble and left only the foundation there... Orion was not present. Orion had not been under the rubble... not even his corpse if he had died... no trace of him... anywhere...

---

"That didn't go as planned did it Nature, darling?" A young woman asked with a slight bit snickering. She was rather amused that he had not only been slashed for one, but also that the Priestess had temporarily disabled his powers and then unleashed her assault.

Nature, who was now bleeding a bit and his shirt torn in the back along with his jacket, snarled a bit. "Silence, Lucretia. I had only planned on it being Orion there. ...Imitating her psychic transmissions was a piece of cake... but I hadn't expected that she would come to talk to him... and then that her busybody students and the idiot teachers would come too..."

"Obviously not, dearest..." Lucretia, or Malice, said with a small laugh. "But did we succeed in the long run?" Lucretia Cygnette was a dainty and pale creature who dressed in an almost provocative way, with a clingy deep black and green dress that had various straps in the back. The outfit was cropped so that it had no straps and just hung off of her, covering her from the collarbone down. The sleeves of the dress were too big for her but were slit up the side and had another slit up the bottom of the dress. She was quite beautiful and had silvery purple hair as a result of her mutation, as well as wearing dark makeup.

"Yes. The one called Orion was apprehended. ...Thanks to the one on the inside." A young Russian accent responded before stepping out from the shadows. The boy looked rather young and had jet black hair, fair skin, but the most catching feature about him was his neon bluish eyes that seemed to contain some sort of energy that moved in them. Nicolai Anatoli, or Specter, wore long black pants and a white button-down shirt that originally belonged to Nature but was given to him. The sleeves were a bit baggy on him because Nicolai did not have the same physique. He wore a light blue sweater tied around his waist by the sleeves because it was colder earlier on.

"Hello Nicolai. Why didn't you go with Nature? He could've used your help. You should really put more trust in Mr. Anatoli, Elias, dear.." Lucretia said with a small laugh.

"...Mr. Rockwell asked me not to come. He said that he would be alright on his own and that I should wait for Diadem to come with Mr. Castilla..." Nicolai said explaining himself in a quiet voice.

Nature shook his head at Lucretia. "I asked Specter not to come because I can mask my presence, and he cannot. Stop pointing fingers... Ah! Adrian. Is Marcelina nearly ready to begin the second part of the plan?" Nature asked turning to Diadem who came back wiping off blood from his shoulder.

Lucretia blinked and looked him over for a moment. "Adrian what happened?" She asked for a moment.

Adrian, or Diadem, blinked for a moment not quite getting what she meant. "Oh... it's nothing... when the portal opened up, I took Orion to the tower like Marcelina said. ...His arm was bleeding so when I carried him there, I guess he bled on me."

"Sorry Mr. Shard, the Priestess surprised me with a nullifying formula... she's gotten craftier over the years..." He said to Adrian. Adrian Shard, or Diadem, was a tall and intimidating figure. He nearly matched the height of Crest but was more lanky than anything else. His eyes were an emerald green and his hair was brownish but seemed to have a blue tint to it, from his mutation. He wore khaki pants with a black belt. His shirt was a bit odd... the color of it was an off-white with a pale red design on the back of it. The sleeves were long and stretched over his hands. On his right arm, he wore a metallic looking brace on his upper arm.

"Would you like me to see if Marcelina is nearly done?" Adrian asked in a polite and soft tone.

"...No. We'll wait here. I've given Marcelina specific orders to come back here when she's finished." Nature said with a cold tone.

((Nature is the only one of my villains that isn't mine. No I must confess that he is the property of my friend... I believe the same one who created Reflect. ..I might be off a bit...

Huzzah more villains. Nature is the first to appear haha.

I know some of you may be wondering what powers the other three villains I introduced have... well... Lucretia Cygnette or Malice... (a play on the word cygnet which is a swan... I wanted an elegant name..) I sort of hinted to with her hair... but not so much... her powers are over poison, by scratching people or finding an open wound on someone, she can poison them, though the poisons are varried from regular poison, to just draining poison that steadily weakens someone... no life-threatening ones will be used ..

Nicolai Anatoli (..the most basic Russian name I could think of...) or Specter... I made a long time ago. His powers are sort of a cross between Rogue and Shadowcat... I made him a phaser... between people and things that kind of phasing. Also he has a 'soul grab' that I named for an energy suction thinger.. When he touches someone and wants to hurt them, he can suck their energy away and into himself to heal himself but the person also has recurring nightmares as Specter sort of... haunts... the person for a few days...

Adrian Shard or Diadem I struggled with the name... I liked the name Adrian but I wasn't sure about Shard... but it works now and it's simple. His powers are mainly about manipulating his body structure into that of gems. They are... what I call... 'Diamond Edge', 'Gem Blade' and 'Crystallization'... Diamond Edge is where he can alter any part of his body (usually his arms) to the consistency of diamonds and slash through things with them. Gem Blade is mainly shooting daggers and blades from his body. Crystallization is a gem armor type thing where it envelops his whole body and it makes it hard to break or hurt him. The only real drawbacks to his mutations are that he's kind of slow, his hair gets weird looks, and there's one patch of his skin that's entirely like a gem and that's under his brace. He never takes off the brace. ...Oh and when he uses his powers, the gems are a bluish purple color, the same as his hair. ))

----

In one of the towers to Nature's lair, Marcelina was currently with Orion. Orion had (somehow... well I'll reveal later...) been retrieved from his imminent death and burial beneath the rocks of the collapsing garage and was brought back. Diadem had carried him to Marcelina who did her... work... in one of the towers. The tower was a quaint looking one, mostly stone, but supported by wooden rafters.

And from the rafters were long chains (extremely hard to break) that were used to restrain a person when Marcelina worked on them. Marcelina's powers were hypnotism and mesmerizing as well as acute psychic bursts, but mainly in hypnotism. Here, they could alter the thoughts and feelings of anyone they wished with the power of the Contessa.

Marcelina hummed lightly as she washed her hands in a little basin. She had Orion's blood on her hands after bandaging up his arm and tending to the other wounds that Nature inflicted on him. Marcelina was a real sight to behold. She wore a long elegant deep red dress that looked almost like the color of wine. It was cropped and strapless and was actually two pieces, one piece covering her chest and back, and the other was the actual dress which was somewhat frilly and reached her ankles. Her skin was slightly tanned, from being Hispanic. The humming Contessa's hair was something that most men were drawn to, in that her hair was brown with small touches of black in it. Her hair was actually straight but seemed to curl slightly at the end. After washing her hands, Marcelina dried them on a nearby towel.

She took a deep breath before going over to her restrained victim. Orion was restrained in the same chains but dangled about a half-foot off the ground, with his arms over his head from the chains that were secured to the rafters. His feet were also restrained, with small metal hoops around his ankles. His shoes had been removed because they were more like boots and went up to his shins, which meant that Orion could kick off his shoes and have his legs free under those circumstances. Orion was still unconscious and his head was slumped down a bit, and every so often, his leg would twitch from an itch caused by the chains.

Marcelina smiled for a moment before taking a light hold of his chin and tilting his head up. "Wake up, mi amor. No puedes dormir toda la tarde" She said in a sing-songy sort of way. She lightly tapped his cheeks to get him to wake up and slowly Orion's amethyst eyes met Marcelina's ruby ones. Suddenly, the chains made jingling sounds as Orion began to struggle and pull his hands and feet before realizing he was chained up. ...Though that didn't stop him from tugging on them... but it was no good.

"Oh don't tell me you're not happy to see me, Raphael... and here I was hoping we could get to talking like we used to..." She said letting their eyes meet before she flicked his arm where he had been shot. Orion winced accordingly of course...

"Release me and then we'll talk..." He said a bit irritated and tugged on the chains before feeling a sharp pain in his arm as the chains seemed to make the gunshot wound more painful.

"Aww... but if I don't keep you chained up for now, you'll run away... back to that witch..." Marcelina said with a slight tone of anger.

"Marcelina, I'll give you one last chance to let me go..." He said as his eyes began to glow the same royal purple but soon fizzled out.

"Oh, do you like them? These chains have special nullifying qualities... You're just as helpless as anyone else at this point..." She said approaching him making him tug again. "Stop struggling... you won't escape my love, sweetheart..." She said placing her cold hands on his face.

"I'm not helpless and I'm especially not your 'sweetheart', Marcelina..." Raphael said trying to shake her hands off of him.

"Oh don't worry, mi amor... you will be soon. Just try to relax.. this won't be easy... or painless... but if you calm down, mi amor... then I promise I'll make it quick... and then you will love me, and me alone... Just be a good boy and hold still..." Marcelina said with a slight giggle. From her hands a pale violet-reddish light began to emit from her hands as she kept them stuck on Orion's face, her fingers moving slowly from his temples, to his cheeks, and back again. She slowly closed her eyes and began her hypnotism...

Marcelina's hypnotism was mainly about supplanting old memories with fake ones for as long as she chose. The effects were not unbreakable for one who specialized in that sort of area but forcibly replacing memories and alterring overall feelings was a bit painful... well very painful. Orion, being very stoic, did not scream or cry out but his eyes tightened in pain as memory after memory was alterred.

Some memories were repressed completely and some left alone... but nearly every memory of him being friends with any of the teachers had to be repressed or alterred somehow. So... a good ten years of memories was what Marcelina was changing. However, Marcelina did keep a lot of his memories in tact of the last ten years... but Marcelina did this while she changed his emotions about them. She began to limit Orion's restraint so things that others had done to him, Orion would be more vengeful and spiteful about. ...Things of that nature. The idea was to turn the kind and respectful Orion into a darker version of himself, mainly by letting all the bitter feelings and other thoughts he'd been keeping to himself, out so that the anger would start to make him hate his former friends.

It took a long time for Marcelina to finish at last, maybe about a half hour or so but once she was done, she lifted her hands off of Orion's face with a satisfied smirk. Orion now a bit tired from struggling and the mental pain he felt from Marcelina's handywork, made his head slump forward again, breathing heavily. Orion's face was sweaty now and soon beads of sweat from his forehead dropped onto the floor. His whole body seemed to ache... his mind hurt and he was sore, especially his arm as he had been resisting and struggling so hard.

But soon, Orion was released from the shackles and fell onto the floor in a tired heap, still breathing heavily. Marcelina smiled some and walked over to him taking a hold of his hand. Orion looked up at her and urged himself to sit up finally. At first, Orion's face was no particular emotion as all the thoughts and fake memories collided and sorted themselves out. "...Marcelina..." He spoke softly for a moment. "...What happened?" He asked a bit confused.

Marcelina stood up from her kneeling position and assisted Orion in standing. "Oh not much... I just helped you realize that you were on the wrong side... that's all... Come. I need you to do one more thing before you can rest..." She said taking him by the hand. Marcelina and Orion descended the spiral staircase of the old tower and soon they arrived in the grand hallway of the castle and began walking towards the main area of the castle.

---

At the end of the way, Nature stood in the middle, while Adrian and Lucretia stood to one side, and Nicolai stood to the other. They had been waiting for some time for Marcelina to be finished.

Marcelina continued to hold onto Orion's hand as she led him down the way. Marcelina seemed very confident while Orion took in the sight of everything. It was very gothic type architecture with arcs and intricately carved columns. Candles lit the way while he walked, barefoot, on the long red and gold carpet that covered the cold stone floor. The layout of the castle was a bit creepy and if accompanied by pipe organ music, it had the potential to scare just about anyone.

Marcelina, upon reaching the rest of the group gave an accomplished looking smile before releasing Orion's hand. Orion, barefoot, a bit sweaty and his arm bandaged, and still in his training suit blinked for a moment as Marcelina sort of presented him to the others. "This is Nature. The one I told you about..." Marcelina whispered to him for a moment.

Lucretia crossed her arms for a moment not sure what to expect, Adrian tilted his head slightly wondering how well Marcelina had done, and Nicolai shifted his hands so that they were in front of him and clenched his hand with the other hand on his wrist as he waited to see the results.

Orion nodded to Marcelina before slowly crouched down and knelt on his left knee. The action surprised nearly everyone except Marcelina, and Orion lowered his head, resting his right hand on his right knee while his left arm was limp, still freshly bandaged. "A pleasure to serve you... Lord Nature..." The former second-in-command to the Priestess said in a deep but soft tone.

Marcelina placed her hands on her hips with a beaming smile. Lucretia made a slight gasping sound as her eyes widened, Adrian brought his left hand up to his mouth in surprise and Nicolai couldn't help but look to Nature. Nature's look was one of almost complete satisfaction as he crossed his arms over his chest, standing there tall and proud with a slightly creepy smile on his face.

"I look forward to assisting you in your goals from now on..."

---

((Ahah! Tis done...

I think I like this chapter best so far. This one was less introduction and more of good old action.

This one seemed to end up being more about Orion... actually the next few chapters will be. I'm hoping to have a chapter or two that focus on an individual character... but not have it blaringly obvious that it's focusing primarily on them. Yeah I'll hope for that...

Please review and make suggestions. ...Also please excuse my evil evil spelling problems. I end up reading the chapter and wondering what the heck I was doing when I wrote it... I'm trying to make them as minor as possible.

Subtely I'm going to add in a few more villains but for right now, Nature, Specter, Diadem, Malice, and Contessa are my main ones.

Playing villains is fun I find... it's easy to script them too... cuz you can have them blow something up just for the sake of them being evil. ...What are Nature's plans for Orion? ...Does he have any?

...Okay so I don't EXACTLY know... but I'm working things out as I go along.

Please look forward to my next chapter. Review please. ))

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Chapter 3: First Training Mission and the Face of Evil Emerges

Next Chapter: How Do You Catch A Falling Star?